If possible, do laundry on the trip. Coming home with a suitcase of clean clothes is so much nicer than one jammed with dirty stuff. A surprising number of resorts have laundry facilities and they often have industrial (read: fast) washers and driers. A one hour investment of your vacation time will pay big dividends.

If you can’t do laundry, at least organize your dirty clothes into distinct loads. On our recent trip, I did laundry mid-way through but still had about three new loads by the end. I used plastic bags to keep lights, darks and colors separated so that when I got home, I could just empty each bag into the washing machine without additional sorting time.

Have bulky souvenirs shipped to your house. This saves valuable suitcase space and will likely be safer transport for fragile items. A lot of places will even ship for free. Alternate plan: see if any souvenirs you like can be ordered online once you’re home.

Try to come home on a Friday or Saturday. Nothing is worse than getting home at 9 PM on Sunday night with a full week looming ahead.

Unpack right away. Tripping over half-filled suitcases for a week just prolongs the misery.

Caveat: Consider not unpacking everything. I have a toiletries case that just about always stays fully packed, ready to go at a moment’s notice. I replenish anything that gets low, but I never fully unpack the bag in between trips. This requires buying an extra toothbrush, deodorant, etc, but it’s worth it.

If possible, arrange to come home to a clean house. We have cleaners that come once a week, and they came while we were gone. Spouse stayed behind this time, so the house was also warm when we arrived. If you have a friend or neighbor watching the house, ask them to turn up the heat a few hours before your expected return.

Have some healthy food waiting for you, even if it’s frozen. Let’s face it: vacation is often about dietary derailment, so being able to eat something nutritious (Veggie soup?) avoids reflexive pizza ordering.

On the front end, snap a picture of where you parked your car. Wandering around the parking garage at the airport for a lost car is a particular kind of misery I don’t want to experience.

Make your bed before you leave. It’s so much nicer to come home to a fresh dressed bed than a pile of twisted sheets. It’s a small thing but makes a difference.

And I’m happy to report that there were no major mishaps and she still seems to be speaking to me, so I’ll chalk that up in the win column.

Trixie (now 6) decided to pack her own bag:

Contents of one furry pink backpack:

Miscellaneous alphabet blocks

Two sticker books

A cardboard stove from a home-made dollhouse

Three small packs of Sweet Tarts

One American Girl doll

Blanket and pillow for said A.G. doll

Small white stuffed dog

I vetoed all of this.

We arrived in Orlando on February 19th and checked into the Swan Hotel. We had a newly renovated room and there were balloons, a card and a birthday button for Trixie waiting for us. She was so excited.

I was planning to run a series of races that started on Saturday with a 10k, a half marathon on Sunday and then finished with a 5k on Wednesday.

Total distance: 22.4 miles.

There was a cold snap in Florida last week and Saturday’s race started with temps in the 40s. This was the second year for this 10k race, and the course is awesome, winding through EPCOT and the Boardwalk hotel area. The cold temps made for fast conditions. I felt great.

Sunday was slightly warmer (50s) and not as humid as last year. The miles zipped by, and while I didn’t set a PR, I felt good the whole time and finished strong.

I was tired but we decided to hit the Magic Kingdom on Sunday afternoon.

Both kids tried to pull the sword from the stone in front of the carousel in Fantasyland.

I haven’t received jewelry in a Fix before, but I got a quartz bangle this time:

The bangle’s pretty, but at $78 it was the most expensive item in the box and the wire it’s made from isn’t very sturdy, which makes me nervous that I’ll break it sooner rather than later.

The last item in the Fix was a pair of chocolate brown Kut from the Kloth cords. It didn’t seem like they’d photograph well, so I didn’t include them here. Sorry! They fit well and worked with everything else, so I was happy.

In the end, I kept it all and I’ve already been getting a lot of wear from every single item. Great fix!

We haven’t tried them before, but the instructions are to crumble under running water to create a bubbly, fun mess.

At only $7.95, I think this is worth picking up this weekend as I buy gifts for her sixth birthday next week.

I hope our nearby LUSH store has them, because it looks like they’re out of stock online.

Another thing I plan to pick up is Tenzi, a dice game that seems easy to learn and adaptable to multiple players of different ages.

The kids and I are going on a vacation with my sister next week, and this seems like it might be a fun way to spend some down time.

And, since it’s Trixie and I love her in a way that makes my thinking about money even more irrational than the usual state, I predict another painful trip to the American Girl store to spend my hard-earned dollars buying things like a $68 baking set.For dolls.